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Grid of all twelve photos in the essay with early Whitman portrait

Every Atom | No. 194

December 10, 2019 — Michael Puttonen
Exclusive online content from the North American Review
Current Issue: 308.1 Spring 2023

December 10, 2019

Every Atom | No. 194

Michael Puttonen

Introduction to Every Atom by project curator Brian Clements

Every Atom project logo

I tramp a perpetual journey, 

My signs are a rain-proof coat and good shoes and a staff cut from the woods;

No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,

I have no chair, nor church nor philosophy;

I lead no man to a dinner-table or library or exchange,

But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,

My left hand hooks you round the waist,

My right hand points to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road.

 

 

An Open Highway

 

 

A sofa in a meadow

 

 

A roadside saloon

 

A leaning pine

 

A cattle crossing sign

 

Wheel-ruts in a pasture

 

Wet blacktop reflecting sky

 

An abandoned diner

 

No trespassing sign at Department of Energy site

 

The rusty shell of an abandoned car

 

Distant mountains under brilliant clouds

 

Highway and power lines receding into an infinite horizon

 

Michael Puttonen

Michael Puttonen is a Dallas-area art director and book designer.

 

 

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